“The public service board has gone so far that they are using armed police officers to keep us out while they facilitate the theft of public land,” said protester, Will Bennington.

Inside the meeting, the board heard from Vermont Gas representatives about project specifics, like who would mow the grass on the 1,800-foot section of the park where the pipeline is slated to be constructed.

They also discussed how maintenance on the pipeline would be performed.

Attorney Jim Dumont, who represents opponents of the project said Vermont Gas is offering the city a half-million dollars in extra construction costs to gain its support.

“They're using rate payer money to make political deals, and we object to that,” Dumont said.

The company released a statement saying in part:

"With a timely resolution of the Hinesburg eminent domain filing, our focus will be on completing this project. We have thousands of customers depending on us to do so."

Vermont Gas paid the city $250,000 in exchange for the right to construct the pipeline through the park.

The meeting venue drew complaints as being too small to accommodate more than six members of the public.

A federal court this week ordered the board to allow the public to attend the meeting. The board had originally closed it to the public.

The board's chosen room for the hearing in Berlin is not where it usually meets.

The board previously said protesters had disrupted hearings on a pipeline project to extend natural gas service from Chittenden County to Middlebury.

One protester interrupted the meeting saying, "We're going to figure out a way to make that more painfully obvious to the government behind it and the board members themselves."

Members of the public who could not fit inside the meeting room could listen to the hearing on a conference call, but at one point, board members turned the volume down, because singing could be heard.

Construction on the $165 million, 41-mile pipeline project was expected to be completed by the end of the year.